Meet the MixMups!

May 19th 2020

Today is the day that I can finally share this news with all the ToyLikeMe supporters who have supported our drive for better representation in children’s industries.

As many of you will remember, ToyLikeMe started as a campaign back in 2015 after I noticed the lack of disability representation in the toy box and called out the toy industry for the cultural marginalisation of millions of disabled children.

Whilst I have toiled building ToyLikeMe as an arts and play organisation to start playful conversations about disability, I have secretly been working away in the backroom to create a pre-school animation series which today I can reveal!!!

Meet The MixMups. Pockets, Giggle, Spin, Yappette the Guide Dog and Roller Guinea the assistance pet we all wish we owned, along with the mysterious trunky beaked Lucky Loover Bird! Through the portal of their magic mixable dress-up box, these guys go on fancy dress problem-solving adventures to charm and delight!

Follow the MixMups here – www.facebook.com/mixmups/

I’m beyond happy to share that I have teamed up with the wonderful, awe inspiring Mackinnon & Saunders (makers of Fantastic Mr Fox and Raa Raa the Noisy Lion to name a few) and global distributer Raydar Media to develop this show with funding from BFI YACF, and hopefully bring it to screens in the future.

When this happens, MixMups will become the first disabled-led and created (by little ol’ me) pre-school animation to feature a guide dog user and wheelchair user as the central characters (nope, not the side kicks!), and I hope it will become the first mainstream pre-school brand of tv/toys/books to playfully and creatively represent and celebrate millions of disabled children and families worldwide who have waited the planet’s lifetime to reach this stage of cultural inclusion.

Thank you for your ongoing support and I look forward to keeping all the ToyLikeMe followers updated on the MixMups and when they might be coming to a screen near you soon! I also have to say a big thank you to my mentor, the author Joyce Dunbar for helping me pull the MixMups out of my brain and onto the page and script editor, Debbie Macdonald who believed in the project from the very start.

Love and friendship.

Rebecca Atkinson